Tag Archives: hockey

It’s already made news throughout North America and farther; the rioting in Vancouver over the Canucks’ loss of the Stanley Cup. While countries like Yemen and Libya have people fighting for their lives and freedom, rioting where they are dying, we have a bunch of goofs rioting because a sports team didn’t win the Cup, because they have too much time on their hand, because they have no respect for anyone else.

A million dollars could not have got me downtown last night where over 100,000 people gathered, and as CBC news reporter Priya Ramu said, many of the people were drunk before the games began and the streets were littered with beer cans and mickey flasks. She heard people saying, if the Canucks lose, riot. There were even people interviewed saying they were down there for the riots. While the percentage of rioters would be a small amount of the total people attending, the fact is that many pictures show gangs overturning cars and fighting with police while many more onlookers cheer them on.

Are these our modern heroes? Is this what’s important in the world? The issue wasn’t just the crowd during the game. There were crowds of people harassing the Bruins at the hotel where they were sleeping, with cars driving through the parking lot all night honking horns. As well a s twitter flash mob gathered in the hotel parking lot to scream and try to keep the Bruins awake. Wow, what a proud record Vancouver holds. I’m sure the Canucks are ashamed to call Vancouver home with this sort of attitude. I guess the term good sportsmanship means nothing to fans and “sore loser” has become the order of the day. People wonder why I don’t watch hockey. With this kind of attitude, which included booing the presenter in Roger’s Arena being so loudly that he couldn’t be heard when handing out the trophies, it’s no wonder I can’t find the sport in these games.

But I have an answer on what to do with the rioters, the looters, the thugs who threatened people and tore apart our city. Like the picture above, many people are recognizable and many of these people will be caught. Here’s some of the things these people should have to do; be charged with the crime, pay for the damages and do volunteer work (that’s no pay) cleaning the city and feeding the poor. But what would be best, since these yahoos have way too much energy and aggression and no sense of what’s important, is to draft them. I’m not fan of war and the draft but it seems to me that if these guys were sent into the army and made to serve without pay (that pay equaling the cost of the damages they inflicted) that at least their aggressions could go to a purpose, a good purpose. I have no sympathy for these jerks, whether men or women. Let them taste what riots are really like from the other side when people’s lives are at stake.

After a rant by one person elsewhere I want to say, it’s not to unleash dynamos of war, rape and torture on unsuspecting victims in other countries but to bring discipline and purpose to these people. Most of them are men with too much time and aggression. Maybe it’s anger, maybe it’s lack of structure. Few of those are going to be sociopaths. Most are able to be trained and I bet that many of them would be crying like babies by even having to face a boot camp, let alone follow army discipline or get blown up. If this seems too hard-edged for some, then give them a choice: five years in jail or two years in the army. They’ll come out of the army with a better perspective than sitting and stewing bitterly in jail, and not contributing to society, which is what they’re doing already.

When I was a kid, my family used to watch hockey and cheer on our team. This is more amazing than it seems and perhaps shows just how Canadian we really were. There were not as many teams as now and my family was definitely not a sporting family. My younger brother went into martial arts but other than that, we did no more than was required of us in school.

So, that we watched hockey, when I think back, was just odd. Unless you’re Canadian and it’s a Canadian thing to do. But as I hit my teens I didn’t watch it anymore and really grew tired of the fights. I’ve seen maybe a few games over the years on TV when I’ve been at a friend’s, but have paid extremely little attention.

But last night I actually went to my first live hockey game: the Canucks against the Anaheim Ducks. We got to watch from a private box so the seats were good and the view was on the side near one end–not a bad angle. I’ve never been in GM place before. It’s very spiff and full of the usual tacky hockey merchandise. I saw a guy wearing a big foam puck on his head.

The first thing I noticed about the game was that it was so quiet. I’m used to the run-on commentary of TV and all the replays. Here they just skated and shot. Some replays were shown on the big center screen that also displayed the game. People of course cheered, or booed when there was a penalty. But another thing I’ve never noticed on TV was that people clap during good plays. Is this a Canadian thing or do they do this in the US too? It was very polite and inspiring.

Something else you don’t see is that they shovel the ice every ten minutes; mostly women with long hair and one guy. And oddly enough almost every time before the shoveling, a fight breaks out. This was not inspiring. Wouldn’t all that ice help cool tempers? Is this some well-timed maneuver to keep the fan’s adrenalin up through the ice break? I’m not sure I get why people would clap and cheer for the fights. Most of the tussles were small and broken up quickly. But there had to be one dogpile. I just called it hockey group sex.

I guess I saw about half the game because you tend to socialize in the boxes and go for a drink or food. Besides the dumb fights, I actually enjoyed watching the game and at one point chose to watch as opposed to socializing. Somehow I missed a couple of the goals against the Canucks and hadn’t realized those 20-minute periods had extended into overtime. When Anaheim scored (final goal 4-3), everyone just got up and left and I was going, uh what happened?

Maybe it’s that Canadian thing again but I think I’d actually go to a game again. Go Canucks!